Divided and conquered?

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO] has been in the news recently, particularly in regard to its article 5, "collective self-defence." We've been watching increased attacks on America's public lands and waters recently and have seen, in response, a growing number of coalitions, groups, businesses and individuals come together to support our public lands and waters. We also have seen a number of reports on how folks like the Koch brothers have been funding and taking a long view on undermining what many would consider fundamental democratic values to benefit the 1% at the top. That, and other factors like recent election outcomes, have made us wonder if it could be time, and might be possible, to create a NATO for the United State's public lands and waters. It would include, but not be limited to such organizations as:

Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development, a coalition of more than 500 businesses, organizations and individuals dedicated to conserving irreplaceable habitats so future generations can hunt and fish on America's public lands. The coalition is led by the National Wildlife Federation, Trout Unlimitedand the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.

Backcountry Hunters & Anglers seeks to ensure North America's outdoor heritage of hunting and fishing in a natural setting, through education and work on behalf of wild public lands and waters. There's a Minnesota Chapter working to protect the Boundary Waters from the proposed Twin Metals mine.

Pategonia supports, among other grantees, Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, which seeks to protect and preserve wilderness and to advocate for the protection of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

There are numerous other businesses, organizations and individuals who support protecting our public lands and waters (and air), our commons, our environment, our heritage. Part of being a democracy, it seems to us, is based on the idea that fish and game, and therefore the water and land resources on which fish and game depend, are not property of the king but belong to all citizens. It further seems to us that politics has failed us as an institution on which we can rely to protect our commons due in large part to the growing influence of money in and on politics, compounded by decisions like Citizens United.

One way we can respond is collectively. In fact, that may be the only way we can effectively respond, since both American and Russian oligarchs, and too many politicians, have benefited by setting us to fighting amongst ourselves. If we can learn to work together and speak with a united voice about our common interests, outdoor enthusiasts and environmentalists may be able to protect the common base on which we all depend. It needs protection from, among others, mining, fracking, free riders, pipelines and other "commons carriers." Isn't it time to join together to defend what we share in commons, and then we'll talk about how we divvy up the shares afterwards?

[UPDATE: Hunters, hikers unite to protect beloved public lands, waters, Denver Post 7/23/18]

I Went into the Maverick Bar

By Gary Snyder

I went into the Maverick Bar   

In Farmington, New Mexico.

And drank double shots of bourbon

                         backed with beer.

My long hair was tucked up under a cap

I’d left the earring in the car.

Two cowboys did horseplay

                         by the pool tables,

A waitress asked us

                         where are you from?

a country-and-western band began to play   

“We don’t smoke Marijuana in Muskokie”   

And with the next song,

                         a couple began to dance.

They held each other like in High School dances   

                         in the fifties;

I recalled when I worked in the woods

                         and the bars of Madras, Oregon.   

That short-haired joy and roughness—

                         America—your stupidity.   

I could almost love you again.

We left—onto the freeway shoulders—

                         under the tough old stars—

In the shadow of bluffs

                         I came back to myself,

To the real work, to

                         “What is to be done.”

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'Twas a week before Christmas

Today I'm feeling as if I've been caught in a time machine and developed some sort of psychic whiplash. MinnPost has an article by Brianna Bierschbach on "Why are Minnesota's elected officials studying a 30-year-old legislative session?" I was there during that session, working with friends and associates on a couple of pieces of legislation. I was also a stunned and mortified observer when a "friendly fire" point of order killed a prospective raise for my boss just about half an hour before Speaker Jennings gaveled the session to a close sine die. Fortunately, it wasn't one of the pieces I was working on. Politics then, as now, is full of surprises. Kind of like Life.

I have no idea where the move to normalize relations with Cuba came from. In fact, I never saw it coming. It puts me in some sort of deja vu to the days when there was a pre-Castro Cuba. (I'm old enough to remember that.) Neither did I expect that the Governor of New York would ban fracking or that the Obama Administration would block oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Bristol Bay. I'm happy to put each of those surprises under the tree to be unwrapped as presents for a better, more sustainable future.

Taylors Falls Library at Christmas

Photo by J. Harrington

Since the front of our house is an undecorated construction zone, enjoy the picture of the front stairs of the Taylors Falls library. Now that the hammering and pounding is diminished today, I can actually think about and be glad we avoided the chaos of construction last Autumn while we were in the midst of the wedding preparations and celebration. Christmas comes every year. Weddings are only supposed to happen once. (Not always true, I know, but we live in hope.) Therefore it is better to have construction chaos at Christmas time than at wedding time. Having been through all of this this year, my preferred solution would be to have remodeling done during a year when there are no weddings in the immediate family and to have a house sitter in charge during construction, while the normal occupants are off on an extended cruise or similar vacation. Unfortunately, neither my karma nor my bank account will support that approach. I am really happy the house didn't collapse as the old siding was removed. This barn shows what can happen when maintenance is deferred too long. No reindeer will be landing on that roof and no babes will be laid in a manger there.

a collapsed barn

Photo by J. Harrington

The Hammer

By Carl Sandburg 

I have seen

The old gods go

And the new gods come.

Day by day

And year by year

The idols fall

And the idols rise.

Today

I worship the hammer. 

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The colors of joy

After yesterday's doom and gloom posting, I'm happy to share a couple of pieces of good news today. At least one small speedbump has been put in the path of end runs around irrational governance in Wisconsin. The Star Tribune informs us that Wis. city's land grab to attract frac-sand mine is overruled by state agency. In Massachusetts, where I came from, I think the last annexation must have been over a hundred years ago, sometime in the late 1800s, so I was surprised at how much of it is still going on in the midwest. Some recent local annexations in Minnesota's Chisago County seemed to me to exceed any rational assessment of land needed for urban development for a long time to come, but, that's not immediately relevant. Trempealeau County is supposed to have appropriate environmental regulations for frac sand operations, but only in townships. Our old friend Superior Silica Sands wants the City of Independence to annex the property they want to mine. I'll leave it to you to think about why. Wisconsin's Department of Administration ruled the "shoestring annexation" wouldn't meet state legal tests. I hope the two townships involved decide to contest the annexation and don't get bought off.

One of Autumn's palettes (try the yellow or tan block)

Photo by J. Harrington

Of probably less significance, but nevertheless heartening, is an Internet discovery I want to share. I see myself as primarily a writer. During Spring (greens) and Autumn (reds, yellows, browns etc.), I've found my lack of fine arts training and education a hindrance when describing the plethora of colors and shades to be seen. Checking for a "color dictionary" gives me hexadecimal notations good for computers but not so much for humans. Then I found this color thesaurus. Thanks to Ingrid Sundberg for the effort and results. A fine example of art being a gift economy. Have some fun and match the colors of the leaves  and grasses (forbes?) with the names in the thesaurus. It's far from as easy as I thought it would be. Now, ask yourself, if you were creating the world, could you do any better with the colors? I didn't think so.

Another Autumn palette (try the red block)

Photo by J. Harrington

Next, I want to make a quick mention of Will Steger's commentary piece on the growth on Minnesota's clean energy economy and the jobs that go with it. I've been hoping someone was working on this. Turns out someone was.

As today's final note, yesterday we uploaded our 700th posting. We missed a few days last year, but basically we've been at this daily for coming up on two years. Once we reach that milestone we may move to a less rigid schedule of several times a week, but we'll try to remain more colorful than eight colors.

Men Say Brown

By Henry M. Seiden 

On the radio this morning: The average woman knows

275 colors—and men know eight. Women say coffee,

mocha, copper, cinnamon, taupe. Men say brown.

Women know an Amazon of colors I might have said

were green, an Antarctica of whites, oceans of colors

I'd stupidly call blue, fields of color, with flowers in them

I would have said were red.

From women, I've learned to love the browns,

the earths, the dusts, the clays, the soft colors, the colors

brought out from the mines, hardened ones,

hardened in fires I would call red; the colors of the furies;

the reconciling colors of the cooling ash.

By myself I know the evening colors when the sky goes

from blue to another blue to black—although it's a lonely,

whitish black sometimes,

                                                                        like the color of sleep—

the way dreams are lit by the light that's thrown

from nowhere on the things you find in them. Last night

there was a turtle, I would say it was brown or green,

or it was a snake, mottled, a kind of grey, disguised

as a turtle, red spots as if painted on the shell,

a palish greenish underside—vulnerable, alone

swimming in water I would say was colorless.

I woke to the pale colors of the morning—no one

has a name for those: the white-rose white you see

through the white of the curtains on the window,

the milks, the creams, the cream a galactic swirl

before it turns to brown when your wife stirs it in the coffee,

the faint drying oval on the silver of the spoon.

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Regaining our balance

First things first. About a week ago, we mentioned, based on information in the Star Tribune, that a Superior Silica Sands (SSS) operation in Wisconsin had been shut down for operating without a permit. Today's issue of the Strib notes such information was and is incorrect. It appears that the county regulators in Wisconsin should have cited a local firm, Cameron Rail Site, instead of SSS. We're happy to correct our small part of the record here on My Minnesota. For those of you particularly interested in frac sand issues in Minnesota and Wisconsin, you could try: The Frac Sand Weekly. We just discovered it today so can't speak to its quality or currency.

Second, have you ever seen Autumn colors, especially in oak trees, as gorgeous as this year's?

red oak leaves; from a "red oak?"

Photo by J. Harrington

That taken care of, there's disturbing information in today's paper on the rapidly changing status of Ebola protocols and responses, a suicide in the Koochiching County jail and a report on the secrecy our Pentagon maintained about Iraq's chemical weapons, that, added to all of the damn, stupid, ugly political ads coming from both parties over public airwaves makes me wonder what the hell we're doing to ourselves? Since when did a scorched earth policy become acceptable as a governance or communications philosophy in this country? It's not as if we don't know any better but it seems as if our values and priorities have become sadly, self-destructively, distorted. Almost as bad is my fear that, if we don't play a rigged game, the 1% wins by default. We're being conditioned to not believe anyone about anything anymore. Here's an example:

Several days after reading something to the effect that "there must have been a breach of protocol," we read:

"What happened there (in Dallas), regardless of the reason, is not acceptable. It shouldn't have happened," Anthony Fauci, director of the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of NIH, said on MSNBC Wednesday." We humans seem to be too hard pressed to accept our own limitations and fallibility.

"Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the CDC, has acknowledged that the government wasn't aggressive enough in managing Ebola and containing the virus as it spread from an infected patient to a nurse at a Dallas hospital.

"We could've sent a more robust hospital infection control team and been more hands-on with the hospital from day one about exactly how this should be managed," he said Tuesday."

Meanwhile, the Star Tribune today  is reporting that:

"Minnesota nurses push for better Ebola gear."

Lots of politicians and businesses claim that there are too many regulations and that cost business too much to meet. I think, based on recent reports of oil train explosions, and oil pipeline leaks that have major, negative consequences to the environment and its inhabitants, including people, and, maybe in the Ebola protocols, we're seeing some chickens come home to roost. We might not have to have so many regulations if we had the right regulations to begin with, but we seem to think we can be penny-wise without being pound-foolish.

mixed deciduous and conifer colors

Photo by J. Harrington

Nature has worked out ecological governance over millions of years of evolution. I don't think she worries about being first to market or next quarter's profits. She focuses on trying to get it right for life. I have no idea why, other than through hubris, we think we can do better. So the issue is, can we correct our own governance systems before we run out of time to correct and extend our record? Think about that between now and November 4. It isn't which politician promises the cheapest, fastest governance, but how do we get the job done best. None of our major or minor parties seem to "get it," so we, for now, have to pick the least, worst alternative or lose by default, or, we could vote for whoever runs the least negative campaign, regardless of party, to reward those who want to offer hope for the future rather than scorched earth today.

Negative

By Kevin Young 

Wake to find everything black

what was white, all the vice

versa—white maids on TV, black

sitcoms that star white dwarfs

cute as pearl buttons. Black Presidents,

Black Houses. White horse

candidates. All bleach burns

clothes black. Drive roads

white as you are, white songs

on the radio stolen by black bands

like secret pancake recipes, white back-up

singers, ball-players & boxers all

white as tar. Feathers on chickens

dark as everything, boiling in the pot

that called the kettle honky. Even

whites of the eye turn dark, pupils

clear & changing as a cat's.

Is this what we've wanted

& waited for? to see snow

covering everything black

as Christmas, dark pages written

white upon? All our eclipses bright,

dark stars shooting across pale

sky, glowing like ash in fire, shower

every skin. Only money keeps

green, still grows & burns like grass

under dark daylight.

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Kicking sand

Did you get up to see the blood moon this morning? It was impressive. My night photography skills, or, more accurately, lack thereof, were obvious in my failed attempts to capture it. As the light came up and the eclipse ended, the full moon looked really good as it was setting. Under those conditions, I had some success. The real message here is that, since I didn't practice starting back in May or June, when the big time came, I couldn't capture it. Of course, I'm still fussing about why more of the controls on my camera aren't backlit. Maybe next year when the opportunity arises, I'll have my act more together.

October's "blood moon"

Photo by J. Harrington

Speaking of getting acts together, some of you may recall that an outfit called Superior Silica Sands has been considering purchasing property in the industrial park in North Branch. According to today's Star Tribune, another of SSS's operations in Wisconsin was just shut down for operating without a permit. That might be worth knowing for Chisago County residents who have concerns about the proposed operation in North Branch. Those same folks might also want to know that there's a meeting Monday, October 13 " 2:30 in the DNR Central Office Lobby Conference Room to discuss the draft ordinance, timelines, and future meeting dates" for a Wabasha City sand ordinance. Always good to know how seriously a business or community takes regulatory requirements, including "dumping polluted wastewater into an unlined pond against regulations..." as was reported for the SSS Wisconsin operation mentioned above. I wonder if any of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency staff who are working on a permit for SSS's operations in Minnesota are aware of the Wisconsin issues and if that could be taken into account in permit conditions.

Patience

By Katherine Larson 

For Max Rojas 

Once a month

when the moon loses everything,

Don Max takes a chair

to the edge of the sea.

Black sand beach & green-backed heron.

The moon   

casts off her milkglass earrings.

I am nothing, she says, but black & white.

I keep losing my face.

Don Max feels for his pipe in his pocket.

Takes it, knocks it against his palm.

I am old! She cries. I get gooseflesh

in the dark. Don Max is looking for his tobacco.

Don Max has found a match.

You don’t know how hard it is

to come back from nothing.   

Don Max smiles & lights up.   

I keep making the same mistakes, she says.

I think you should leave me, she says.   

Through smoke, she watches Don Max

fold a strip of seaweed into a grasshopper.

Leave me for your own good! She demands.

Don Max has set the grasshopper in the sand.

Besides, I am too beautiful.   

She speaks it as though it makes her sad.

I’ll find other lovers. I will

forget you.

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Sand in your face?

Following yesterday's thoughts in My Minnesota on mining's environmental management in Northern Minnesota, today's MinnPost has an informative piece by Ron Meador noting that "Frac-sand mining boom is accelerating and eluding regulators, analysis finds." This time its Southeastern Minnesota that's the area of concern. Combine that with  western and southern Minnesota's agricultural contributions to Anthropogenic Climate Disruption, and you might get the impression we're at war with the only home we have, and There is no Planet B.

Planet A and Planet B
A true-color NASA satellite mosaic of Earth.

At least as far as the frac sand mining in Minnesota is concerned, the EQB has devoted a page on their web site so you can try to keep track of what the state has done and is still proposing to do. DNR's reclamation rule-making schedule is here; The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has recently issued a second request for public comments on particulate emissions rule-making; Minnesota's Department of Health suggests that Health Impact Assessments should be part of the environmental review process (I'd like to see legislation making an HIA mandatory for mining, processing, transport and transhipment of silica sand). Once again, I think that rather than banning mining operations, Minnesota should be imposing environmental regulations, regardless of cost, to protect the "public health and welfare." If that drives up the cost of natural gas or other natural resource, we should use less of it. I think that's the way economics is supposed to work. Otherwise, those folks who are negatively affected end up subsidizing those who make a profit from the activity.

Minnesota's Impaired Waters
source: MPCA

Most economists I've read think rather poorly of subsidies. If energy subsidies aren't beneficial, I don't see why mining subsidies would be. Some smartphone makers are already charging a small fortune for their products. The price of natural gas has dropped significantly in the past few years. We need to start paying the real price, including the depleted environmental capital costs, of the resources we consume. Why? There is no Planet B and the most recent world populations forecasts have population increasing to 12+ billion. The issue isn't just the amount of change that's going on, but the increasing (increased) rate of change also. Minnesota is currently, or may soon be, paying the price in environmental quality and in quality of life for those who enjoy the outdoors or need water and air. If you're starting to think we're under assault, you may be right. See what Pogo has to say about it. Don't we live in

Interesting Times

By Mark Jarman 

Everything’s happening on the cusp of tragedy, the tip of comedy, the pivot of event.

You want a placid life, find another planet. This one is occupied with the story’s arc:

About to happen, on the verge, horizontal. You want another planet, try the moon.

Try any of the eight, try Planet X. It’s out there somewhere, black with serenity.

How interesting will our times become? How much more interesting can they become?

A crow with something dangling from its beak flaps onto a telephone pole top, daintily,

And croaks its victory to other crows and tries to keep its morsel to itself.

A limp shape, leggy, stunned, drops from the black beak’s scissors like a rag.

We drive past, commenting, and looking upward. A sunny morning, too cold to be nesting,

Unless that is a nest the crow has seized, against the coming spring.

We’ve been at this historical site before, but not in any history we remember.

The present has been cloaked in cloud before, and not on any holy mountaintop.

To know the stars will one day fly apart so far they can’t be seen

Is almost a relief. For the future flies in one direction—toward us.

And the only way to sidestep it—the only way—is headed this way, too.

So, look. That woman’s got a child by the hand. She’s dragging him across the street.

He’s crying and she’s shouting, but we see only dumbshow. Their breath is smoke.

Will she give in and comfort him? Will he concede at last? We do not know.

Their words are smoke. In a minute they’ll be somewhere else entirely.

Everyone in a minute will be somewhere else entirely. As the crow flies.

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Environmental regulation consumption advisory

I'm going to make a wild guess that he hadn't read yesterday's story about citizen concerns on mercury discharges in the St. Louis River when "PolyMet spokesman Bruce Richardson said the poll results are consistent with the company’s research that shows residents are willing to let environmental regulators manage the decision." The last time I took a look, Minnesotans were getting increasingly concerned about whether their government was doing enough to protect public health and the environment. That's one of the reasons there was a recent forum in Duluth, seeking commitments from public agencies to accelerate the cleanup of the St. Louis river and other mercury contaminated water bodies in Minnesota.

St. Louis River in Duluth

Photo by J. Harrington

A different example of citizen concern landed in my in basket within the past few days. Someone posted a comment on My Minnesota to be sure we knew about the fact that North Branch and Chisago County residents have concerns about the possible health impacts of a frac sand processing and transfer facility proposed for a North Branch industrial park. That's in line with the recent Minnesota Pollution Control Agency decision to respond to local citizen concerns and require an environmental review of a frac sand operation in Winona. It's my belief that, if Minnesotans were willing to let environmental regulators and local officials manage decisions that affect the health and safety of Minnesotans, there wouldn't be as much push back as we're seeing. As things stand, even our beautiful wild and scenic St. Croix River has a number of fish consumption advisories. (By the way, the fish consumption advisory for rivers is only 18 pages long. The advisory for lakes runs to 193 pages.)

Wild, scenic St. Croix River

Photo by J. Harrington

I don't believe that business as usual is going to cut it any more. I'm glad to see that residents of Minnesota and a number of other places are getting tired of picking up the tab for cleanup after corporations have siphoned the profits out of the local environment. Maybe that frustration will create a new and different kind of corporate inversion financing that most of us could probably support. You know, something that helps the 99% and not just the 1%. Maybe, just maybe, we're starting to put being a citizen ahead of being a consumer. That would be a massive improvement in the quality of life and the quality of the environment for most of us. Those in Scotland decided to stick with the United Kingdom, but they did so based on informed consent. That's what I think most Minnesotans want their local officials and environmental regulators to provide and honor. Something to think about as you read Incantation and when you vote come this November.

Incantation

By Czeslaw Milosz 

Translated By Czeslaw Milosz and Robert Pinsky 

Human reason is beautiful and invincible.

No bars, no barbed wire, no pulping of books,

No sentence of banishment can prevail against it.

It establishes the universal ideas in language,

And guides our hand so we write Truth and Justice

With capital letters, lie and oppression with small.

It puts what should be above things as they are,

Is an enemy of despair and a friend of hope.

It does not know Jew from Greek or slave from master,

Giving us the estate of the world to manage.

It saves austere and transparent phrases

From the filthy discord of tortured words.

It says that everything is new under the sun,

Opens the congealed fist of the past.

Beautiful and very young are Philo-Sophia

And poetry, her ally in the service of the good.

As late as yesterday Nature celebrated their birth,

The news was brought to the mountains by a unicorn and an echo.

Their friendship will be glorious, their time has no limit.

Their enemies have delivered themselves to destruction.

Berkeley, 1968

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Thanks and No Thanks

Thanks

All to often, I'm ready to find fault with and criticize "what's wrong with the world," especially how politics and government have a penchant for making things worse instead of better. Not today. Today I truly want to thank Governor Dayton, MPCA Commissioner John Linc Stine, and the good folks at the Land Stewardship Project for their wisdom, decision-making and collective efforts that led to an "environmental review of the CD Corporation’s frac sand facility expansion at the river port in Winona, Minn. As a result, the proposed expansion cannot proceed until the environmental review process is completed." It's a pleasure to see government doing its job. I wonder if a similar review might be required for the proposed frac sand transfer facility in North Branch.

Northern Minnesota, Sawtooth Mountains

Photo by J. Harrington

Many corporations aren't waiting for government to make a decision or impose a requirement. I'm becoming more and more intrigued by the growth in Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting. It may or may not cut into profits, but, except for those who think we should win a race to the bottom, effectively and efficiently managing environmental responsibilities, which involves more than permit compliance, is rapidly becoming a necessity for obtaining a social license to continue (or start) a successful business. That's why I'm both surprised and disappointed that the Mining Minnesota web site references only meeting mandated federal and state environmental standards.

Strong Environmental Standards: Minnesota’s strong environmental standards are among the most stringent. The state has a thorough and comprehensive environmental review and permitting process. All mining companies are required to meet or exceed all standards, assuring air and water quality is protected.

Calumet, Minnesota, a different kind of mountain

Photo by J. Harrington

No Thanks

I would be more impressed if they also made reference to developing and following an Environmental Management System for any mining operation that may get permitted. We can make a comparison with the building industry. Building codes establish minimum requirements to be met for health and safety and energy efficiency. Many developers of new buildings are using green building criteria to go well beyond those minimum standards for energy efficiency, indoor air quality, water conservation and other factors including waste minimization and recycling. For many years, mining companies have had the benefit of international standards they could use for environmental management systems consistent with ISO 14000. I wonder why Minnesota Mining doesn't mention on their web site an intent to follow and develop such a system. Maybe they're waiting for the voluntary system to become a legal requirement. (That might make a great permit condition, if we ever get to that point.) Five uranium operations in Saskatchewan are ISO 14001 certified, Minera Yanacocha, an open pit gold mine promotes its 2004 certification. Doe Run's Sweetwater Mine and Mill has achieved ISO 14001 Certification. I certainly don't want you to conclude that I think achieving an ISO 14001 certification is the solution to mining's environmental impacts, but it is a clear indication of companies that have learned to walk their talk about minimizing environmental impacts.

Maybe, like Tony Hoagland, I take it personal. I live on this world.

Personal

By Tony Hoagland

Don’t take it personal, they said;

but I did, I took it all quite personal—

the breeze and the river and the color of the fields;

the price of grapefruit and stamps,

the wet hair of women in the rain—

And I cursed what hurt me

and I praised what gave me joy,

the most simple-minded of possible responses.

The government reminded me of my father,

with its deafness and its laws,

and the weather reminded me of my mom,

with her tropical squalls.

Enjoy it while you can, they said of Happiness

Think first, they said of Talk

Get over it, they said

at the School of Broken Hearts

but I couldn’t and I didn’t and I don’t

believe in the clean break;

I believe in the compound fracture

served with a sauce of dirty regret,

I believe in saying it all

and taking it all back

and saying it again for good measure

while the air fills up with I’m-Sorries

like wheeling birds

and the trees look seasick in the wind.

Oh life! Can you blame me

for making a scene?

You were that yellow caboose, the moon

disappearing over a ridge of cloud.

I was the dog, chained in some fool’s backyard;

barking and barking:

trying to convince everything else

to take it personal too.

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Sand in the gears of main streets

For those of you who don't get the Sunday NY Times, I want to share a delightful Opinion Piece (pieces?) by seven poets responding to the question "Does Poetry Matter?" I read through the pieces while sitting on the patio and listening to the occasional call of a loon. I had the company, from time to time, of a chipmunk that has so far evaded the Hav-a-hart trap and a subsequent ride of several miles prior to release. I was having a very pleasant morning until I came across Jon Tevlin's column today, about Superior Silica Sands (SSS) and North Branch, and truck traffic impacts on Taylors Falls. Perhaps I've been overly sensitized to truck traffic by the heavy haulers (trailers and dumps) that have been pounding past the house for several days now as the township and / or the county "repairs" our gravel road somewhere south of here. Anyhow, we don't, and won't, have as much of a truck traffic problem (I hope) as Taylors Falls business and residents will experience if the deal between North Branch and SSS is finalized without protecting Taylors Falls "main street."

Taylors Falls public library

Photo by J. Harrington

When we wrote about this issue last week, we also mentioned transportation issues related to the shipment of actual oil and tar sands. If it weren't for fracking to increase our natural gas supply, I doubt the truck traffic on Minnesota State Highway 95 would present as much of an obstacle.  As we continue into the 21st century, it becomes more and more clear to me that, indeed, we are all in this together and the sooner we start acting that way the better off we'll all be. I don't think that North Brach and Taylors Falls would ever approach the level of animosity currently being displayed between Israel and Gaza, maybe more just like the Hatfields and the McCoys, or the Capone and Moran gangs. I wonder how many, if any, of this year's (and future) local elections might be affected by this issue?

St. Croix Falls and Taylors Falls

Photo by J. Harrington

Of course, having a state highway as your Main Street can be a mixed blessing. Wisconsin, for a number of years, as I recall, has had (may still have?) a program to route state highways around local "down towns." Those projects were frequently a source of questions and concern when "main street businesses" were afraid they'd loose visibility to drive-by traffic. According to the summaries linked in the preceding sentence, effects were more positive than not. How long would it take Minnesota to bypass downtown Taylors Falls? Would that be preferable for the community? Winona, another affected Minnesota community, is learning to cope with frac sand traffic and protesters. I remain troubled by the apparent lack of a venue for working out some sort of amicable resolution for this, and similar, issues. One of the keys to a sustainable society and a sustainable community is social equity. The way Taylors Falls may be affected by decisions intended to benefit North Branch and SSS seems to me to be very inequitable. Clearly, if this situation is any example, we have a lot of work to do to create a sustainable Minnesota, and it doesn't all have to do with environmental regulatory agencies. Perhaps we can find a way to prove Wordsworth wrong. Perhaps, not.

Mutability

By William Wordsworth 

From low to high doth dissolution climb,

And sink from high to low, along a scale

Of awful notes, whose concord shall not fail;

A musical but melancholy chime,

Which they can hear who meddle not with crime,

Nor avarice, nor over-anxious care.

Truth fails not; but her outward forms that bear

The longest date do melt like frosty rime,

That in the morning whitened hill and plain

And is no more; drop like the tower sublime

Of yesterday, which royally did wear

His crown of weeds, but could not even sustain

Some casual shout that broke the silent air,

Or the unimaginable touch of Time. 

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Sustainable St. Croix,a continuing seriesSand friction

Life here in the St. Croix Valley occasionally gets fractious. The City of North Branch and Superior Silica Sands (SSS) are once again trying to cut a deal that would let SSS transship frac sand from North Branch after SSS routes 200 to 250 trucks a day full of sand from Wisconsin through downtown Taylors Falls on the way to North Branch. There's supposed to be some effort underway to find an alternate route for the sand trucks. With very little checking online, we discovered that Wisconsin DOT, which is supposed to be the owner of the Highway 8 bridge, had plans to reroute "larger truck" traffic to the Osceola bridge back in 2010 when the bridge underwent rehabilitation. It seems to us that, if such a plan was viable a few years ago, it should still offer an option that could alleviate Taylors Falls' concerns about impacting local businesses during the summer months. In addition to the local press, and some Twin Cities TV coverage when it looked like this project was going away, Bluestem Prairie has been providing good coverage of this issue. I suppose we should be thankful that, at least so far, no one has proposed running oil trains or an oil pipeline across the river. Ron Meador has written some good pieces recently for MinnPost about the risks involved in continuing to feed our oil addiction.

Speaking of Taylors Falls and the St. Croix river and transportation, we had the pleasure of spending some time there this afternoon, at the river, not the city. For the first time in several years, we took a fly rod and a fishing companion off to flail the river. Neither of us caught anything, although we each missed one, and we got to see one of the "paddlewheelers" from Taylors Falls make a "u-turn" and head back upstream.

Coming downstream

Photo by J. Harrington

Turning

Photo by J. Harrington

Headed upstream

Photo by J. Harrington

While we were watching the Taylors Falls Princess manoeuvre on the water, an osprey flew over us and the water about rod-tip high. All in all it was a fun and exciting trip. We'll do it again if we don't have to dodge too many Wisconsin sand trucks. I don't suppose there's a transshipment facility they could use down near Stillwater so they could wait a year or two then have the trucks come across the new bridge going in down there? Meanwhile, Tony Hoagland "nails it" with this poem. Notice he doesn't mention truck traffic?

Summer in a Small Town

By Tony Hoagland 

Yes, the young mothers are beautiful,

with all the self-acceptance of exhaustion,

still dazed from their great outpouring,

pushing their strollers along the public river walk.

And the day is also beautiful—the replica 19th-century paddle-wheeler

perpetually moored at the city wharf

                with its glassed-in bar and grill

for the lunch-and-cocktail-seekers

who come for the Mark Twain Happy Hour

which lasts as long as the Mississippi.

This is the kind of town where the rush hour traffic halts

                to let three wild turkeys cross the road,

and when the high school music teacher retires

after thirty years

the movie marquee says, “Thanks Mr. Biddleman!”

and the whole town comes to hear

                the tuba solos of old students.

Summer, when the living is easy

and we store up pleasure in our bodies

like fat, like Eskimos,

for the coming season of privation.

All August the Ferris wheel will turn

                           in the little amusement park,

and screaming teenage girls will jump into the river

with their clothes on,

right next to the No Swimming sign.

Trying to cool the heat inside the small towns

                                               of their bodies,

for which they have no words;

obedient to the voice inside which tells them,

“Now. Steal Pleasure.”

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Sustainable St. Croix,part of a continuing seriesChisago County sand bur

As soon as we settle on an "official" name for our Little Free Library, we'll be able to complete the registration process and do some more promotion. The corner where it sits has now been mowed and paving blocks make a path to the library. (I just hope the narcissus come back next Spring.) Maybe we can find some free or very inexpensive copies of Wilhelm Moberg's The Emigrants series to put on the shelf, or maybe one of the neighbors might leave some. That might help draw a small crowd.

A mowed front yard for the Little Free Library in the Woods    © harrington

Speaking of neighbors, our neighbors in both Taylors Falls and North Branch might be interested to know that the Land Stewardship Project has produced a fact sheet on Frac Sand Mining A Threat to the Land, People and Communities. (full disclosure: I've been a member of LSP for years, ever since the had Wendell Berry here to do a reading.) On transport, the sheet notes that hauling is

A Threat to Roads and Safety

          Hauling frac sand from mining sites requires a major increase in truck traffic on rural roadways (loaded frac sand semi-trucks weigh up to 40 tons). Two mines proposed near St. Charles, Minn., would generate an estimated 1,200 truck trips per day, and they are among a cluster of other mines proposed in the immediate area by the same company. In the city of Wabasha, Minn., a major frac sand transfer facility is being proposed that would mean hundreds of frac sand trucks coming from Wisconsin and travelling through residential areas and past a nearby hospital.
          Besides crowding roadways, risking public safety, and producing massive amounts of diesel fume exhaust (considered a major human health risk), this increased truck traffic places an economic burden on already over-extended local units of government that are responsible for maintaining roadways.

As I've been working my way through the feasibility study for a National Heritage Area for the North Woods and Waters of the St. Croix, I note that one of the fundamental goals of such an initiative would be to:

 Create sustainable economic opportunities based on our region’s heritage to enhance communities, livability, and quality of life This would be accomplished by linking economic growth with resource stewardship and sustainable practices. Culture and recreation will be promoted as economic drivers, and a focus on heritage development will result in the creation of new jobs and innovative opportunities. One element of this is using shared heritage and stories to guide tourism and to thoughtfully attract visitors throughout the region to reduce impact on the special resources now more frequently visited and bring exposure and economic benefit to those areas that seek it.

There is also mention of a cooperative, regional approach to increasing economic development in the watershed. I think it would be really unfortunate if frac sand mining and transport turned out to be a skunk in the woodpile that stunk up the possibility of future cooperation among the communities in the watershed. The Taylors Falls folks who don't want more frac sand truck traffic have a Facebook page and a MoveOn petition. Some of the North Branch residents are reported to be in opposition also. Since North Branch already has an Industrial Sands drying and screening and rail shipping operation, and the folks that run that note on their web site that

In addition to processing our own industrial sands, Barton Industrial Sands is positioned to work with others to provide custom screening solutions to deliver products to markets in partnership with others.

I suppose it would be entirely too logical to hope that Barton and SSS could cut a deal. Of course, that wouldn't get North Branch their $1 million or so they hope to reap by selling some property to SSS.

Heritage Park in Taylors Falls overlooking the St. Croix River © harrington

As a resident of Chisago County, wherein both North Branch and Taylors Falls are located, I wish there were a mechanism (and some leadership) to negotiate some sort of a regional answer, kind of as a practice run for future cooperation. Or, do you suppose a threat to extend the Metro Council's Fiscal Disparities tax base sharing program to Chisago County would bring folks to their senses? Sand seems to have a way of bringing out less than the best in us, even according to Lillian Moore.

Mine

By Lilian Moore 

I made a sand castle.

In rolled the sea.

            "All sand castles

            belong to me—

            to me,"

said the sea.

I dug sand tunnels.

In flowed the sea.

            "All sand tunnels

            belong to me—

            to me,"

said the sea.

I saw my sand pail floating free.

I ran and snatched it from the sea.

            "My sand pail

            belongs to me—

            to ME!"

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Sustainable St. Croix,part of a continuing seriesNational Heritage Area or frac sand economy?

Once I overcame my fear of the strange, bright light in the sky today, I noticed that the hill out back is covered in colors. There's lots and lots of some white wildflower I'll need to go and identify (I've been told it's boneset but I don't think the pictures of boneset match what's in the field. I think it's hoary alyssum.), increasing amounts of hairy vetch (purple), and an abundance of hoary puccoon plants (yellow). The flowers, the sunshine, and the fact that our basement isn't flooded have combined to put me in a good mood, and to extend my deepest sympathy to many of my fellow Minnesotans.

goslings and goose                             © harrington

This little flock, and a couple more like them, are another reason to be happy today. If they aren't the cutest, they're in the top five or so (along with puppies, kittens, ducklings, and, if your name is Hagrid, baby dragons).

On a much less cheerful note, the frac sand facility proposed for North Branch, that we were informed a while ago was not going to proceed, is apparently back in play. We have a number of concerns about this project, if what we've read is basically accurate. First, we're not sure MoveOn petitions are the most effective way to address this kind of problem, but they may be the best available to concerned citizens until the upcoming election. Second, the concept, reported in the June 12 linked story ("back in play") of looking at a "bypass" around downtown Taylors Falls, strikes us as being just short of a fantasy or a fairy tale. Third, we hope the folks in the Valley, on both sides of the River, begin to think about is how well the advantages of a National Heritage Area designation, currently being explored, might be offset by additional development of heavy industry with traffic needs that conflict with tourist traffic.

St. Croix Falls and Taylors Falls            © harrington

We also wonder if the National Park Service might have concerns about a bypass around Taylors Falls or about augmenting the capacity of the current bridge, since it's not clear that the design of that facility is based on the amount of heavy truck traffic that includes frac sand. All of this is coming along at a time when legislatures at the state and federal level are reluctant to provide the funds needed for currently committed and programmed projects. We have few doubts we'll be revisiting this issue again and again. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, please note that Jeff Daniel Marion could easily have been writing about the St. Croix River. Maybe he was.

Playing to the River

By Jeff Daniel Marion 

She stands by the riverbank, 

notes from her bagpipes lapping

across to us as we wait

for the traffic light to change.

She does not know we hear—

she is playing to the river,

a song for the water, the flow

of an unknown melody to the rocky

bluffs beyond, for the mist

that was this morning, shroud

of past lives: fishermen

and riverboat gamblers, tugboat captains

and log raftsmen, pioneer and native

slipping through the eddies of time.

She plays for them all, both dirge

and surging hymn, for what has passed

and is passing as we slip

into the currents of traffic,

the changed light bearing us away.

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